Going through the numbers of
the Bible, I knew very early on what the number 9 represented. It's the ninth hour where Christ
accomplished the salvation of His people. I read the passage
from Matthew. The Lord's death is recorded
in all the Gospels, but the ninth hour is mentioned in Matthew,
Mark, and Luke specifically, and so we're going to be looking
in Mark 15 if you would like to turn there. the account by
Mark. None of them contradict each
other throughout the Gospels. We just have these four witnesses
that declared unto us the work of Christ, and they all complement
each other. Harmoniously complement each
other. Mark 15, verse 33 says, And when
the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land
until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,
which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And some of them that stood by,
when they heard it, said, behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran
and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave
him to drink, saying, let alone let us see whether Elias will
come and take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice
and gave up the ghost. In the veil of the temple was
written twain from the top to the bottom. In this 9th hour,
we find our only hope in salvation. We find that salvation was accomplished
this hour. This was the hour that God redeemed
his people. This was. When the Lord from
the foundation of the world begat us by his own will, it was for
this moment to be accomplished. And verse 38 tells us clearly
that the veil in the temple was written twain from top to bottom.
I found it miraculous that you and I have been going through
different books of the Bible in different numbers, and it
seems like we're building from week to week. And just as we
looked this past Sunday, at the veil in the temple being rent,
here it is again with the ninth hour. Why is that? Why is it
every time we turn, it seems like we may be saying the same
thing or we may be reiterating what we said before because this
ninth hour is the same glorious gospel that was preached Sunday
according to the Lord's purpose in the Lord being our king and
the Lord being our priest. This ninth hour is what the whole
creation exists for, what the purpose of the world was created
for, was for this ninth hour. The veil, I wanted to mention,
I didn't mention this Sunday, I slipped and forgot to mention
it, but the veil, we find in 2 Chronicles 3.14 that the veil
was three colors. It was red, and it was blue,
and it was purple. So that when you see the red,
You see the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, his humanity. When
you see the blue, you see his deity, his royalty, his isness
as God, and blend together, you see the purple. Blue and red
makes purple, doesn't it? It took his blood to cover us
in order for our sin to be put away, and it was done this ninth
hour. That's when it happened. I'm also reminded of a rainbow
when I'm reading about the veil. The rainbow is the promise of
the Lord. And no matter what people try to do with the rainbow,
it's God's promise to his people that he will not flood the earth
again. That's our hope. But the colors of the rainbow,
the first one's red. So when we, the first one's red
and it goes all the way to violet, it goes all the way to the bluish
hue, the same as the veil does, right? So when we look up, We
see the blue, we see the royalty of God. We see God's sovereignty
when he looks down, reds the first one, he sees the blood.
Everything in the scripture points to Christ in this ninth hour,
the things that he accomplished in it. Everything points to him
on the cross for his people. So what Christ did this ninth
hour is our only hope. It was purposed before time.
Before time began, the ninth hour was purposed. The Lord created
time. for there to be a ninth hour.
The ninth hour was when the Lord saved his people. We find that
Christ was seen in Revelation 13 as the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world, from the foundation of the world.
The Lord purposed this to happen for his people. He did it in
the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world,
entered into a covenant with his son that he would redeem his
people from their sin He gave it to them in the Lamb's Book
of Life. And he finished the work to redeem them. Everything
that was needed, all the ordinances that we read about on Sunday,
where the priest had to enter in in the ceremonial robes and
he had to go through all of the ordinances and everything. It was complicated, wasn't it?
It wasn't a simple thing. God is not Salvation's simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
but we cannot do that in and of ourselves. The Lord has to
cause us to do that. But everything required was accomplished. All the ordinances, all the ceremonies. When the Lord said, it is finished,
he left nothing undone. And it was done in the ninth
hour. That's when the Lord chose for this to take place. All the
promises that he made to his father and all the promises he
made to us have been kept. He lived a perfect life and fulfilled
the law in word in thought, in deed. And everything that he
did was perfect. He accomplished salvation. Did you know the Lord prayed
perfect prayers for you and I? Because we can't pray perfect
prayers. And he takes our prayers that we do pray unto him and
he washes them in his own blood and presents them as perfect
unto his father. Somebody recently had mentioned the Lord's prayer
to me, and they said, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. You've heard that before. But the disciples had came to
the Lord and said, Lord, teach us to pray. And the Lord said,
well, as often as you pray, pray like this. So that's the disciples'
prayer. If you want to see the Lord's
prayer, go to John chapter 17. When you see the Lord looking
to his Father and saying, Father, I pray not for the world, but
I pray for them which thou hast given me, thine they are, thine
thou art. The Lord was saying that he.
Whatever the father had given him, those whom the Lord had
given him was the father's first and he gave him unto the son
to bring them back to him. And that's exactly what he did
in the 9th hour. What else was finished in this
9th hour? Well, justice was satisfied, wasn't it? The law demands justice
for trespass for transgression. And the Lord successfully redeemed
his people by satisfying the justice and judgment of the Lord.
He did it by the shedding of his own blood. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sin. And his perfection was
bestowed upon his people. His righteousness has been imparted.
Isn't it wonderful to think that he took our sin and gave us perfection? He took our unholiness and he
gave us holiness. He took our unrighteousness and
gave us his righteousness. So literally, every negative
that we have, every negative that we are, He took and gave
us all of His positives. He's the only one that gets glory
and salvation for that reason. Everything that He did, He gets
all the glory for because He took everything that we are and
made us what we are in Him. Aaron, in the scripture, you
heard us talk about this Sunday, he had to take two goats First
goat he would offer up unto the Lord as a sacrifice, a blood
offering, without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sin. The second one he had to put his hands upon and he
had to confess all the sins of the people. He had to confess
his sins. He had to confess the whole congregation's
sins. I don't know exactly how he would
do that. If it was up to us, in order for salvation to be
imparted, for us to confess all of our sin, it's not possible
for us to confess all of our sin, is it? We don't even know
the magnitude of our sin and the depths of depravity that
we are. And yet it says Aaron confessed all of the sin. of
the people of the congregation upon that goat and it was set
out as a scapegoat bearing the sin of the people. Our Lord had
to confess every sin on them as his own. He had to own them. He who know no sin became sin.
He was not made. Said he was not a sinner. He
was made sin for us who knew no sin. That's simple, isn't
it? He was made sin for us who knew no sin. I can't hardly explain
that the way I would like to, but that's exactly what took
place on the cross of Calvary when his soul was offered up
as an offering for sin. Our substitute lamb, our scapegoat,
our surety, our high priest bore our sin in his body, confessed
them as he has owned them as his own, and God killed him for
it. How do we know that that's true?
Because the Lord would not kill his son unless he was made sin. Justice only demands justice
if the law has been transgressed against. He had to become me
in order for me to become the righteousness of God in him.
Do we see that? The glorious news is that he did it. It's
already been done. The ninth hour was accomplished.
It was sure before the foundation of the world. And in that ninth
hour, when he said it is finished, we know that it was accomplished
because the veil was written twain from top to bottom. We
see him. The veil is Christ. And it's
literally says that the veil being his flesh. was rent from
top to bottom by the Father, the Lord, rent His Son for His
people on the cross of Calvary. All the guilt that we should
have bore in our own self, we're guiltless before God. Did you
know that? We are guiltless. We are innocent. We are the righteousness
of God because of Christ Jesus, because He bore the guilt. He
bore the shame, all the mockings, all the railings. We read in
Matthew how they railed against him, just mocking him. putting
Him to shame and saying all manner of evil things against Him, and
yet He opened not His mouth. Why? He was bearing the sin of
His people. He was fulfilling the covenant
of grace that was instituted before the foundation of the
world. He was going to be made sin for His people, and therefore,
He would not open up His mouth. Those Pharisees made a statement
to Him, and it's the truest statement. They said, others He can save,
but He Himself He cannot. That's true, isn't it? Because
if he would have saved himself, he could not have saved us. He
could not have saved himself or they would have been no salvation.
He would not have. If he saved himself, he could
not have said it is finished, but he did not. He said it is
finished. He did not save himself. He saved
his people from their sin. How did he do that? He took them
as his own and he gave us his righteousness. He took our iniquity. He took our transgression, He
took our trespass, everything that we are, every blemish that
we have, every guilty stain, and He washed them in His blood
and made us whiter than snow. That's what He did the ninth
hour for His people. our utterly disgusting wickedness. He took it. He took it and gave
us His beauty and His perfection and His glory and His righteousness. We've been made the righteousness
of God in Him. Turn with me to Hebrews 9. Hebrews
9. Verse 23 tells us, it was therefore
necessary that the pattern of things in the heavens should
be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with
better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered into
the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often As
the high priest entered into the holy place every year with
blood of others, for then must he often have suffered since
the foundation of the world. But now once, one time in the
end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered
to bear the sins of many. And as to them that look for
him shall appear the second time without sin, Under salvation. Without seeing we've been made
sinless. I don't understand that I still
carry around this flesh. I know that I'm still in my thought
in my action in my deed. I constantly am sinning and that's
all that I am is sin. But when God sees me, he sees
the blood of the Lamb and he sees me as perfectly righteous
according to his word. He did that for his people. When
the Lord sees his people, he no longer sees their wretchedness,
their vileness, their iniquity. their trespasses and transgressions.
He sees the precious blood of Christ so that when Christ said
it is finished in the ninth hour, they were made whiter than snow,
whiter than snow. He entered into the holiest of
holies, not in a place made with hands, he's saying here, but
into heaven itself. He presented himself unto the
Father. He walked into the throne room
of God the Father, presenting himself as our high priest and
our surety, bringing back all of those with him for whom he
lived and died for, for whom he was resurrected for, he presented
us unto the Father as perfectly righteous by his own blood. The
Father said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. Sit thou here
on my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool. God
is satisfied with his son and the work that Christ Jesus did.
Our surety, our Savior, our sovereign prophet, priest, and king, the
sinless, spotless, perfect lamb. Shed his blood for his people
was offered up unto the father. His soul was offered up unto
the father as our surety, as our shepherd, as our high priest,
as our prophet, priest and King and the father was satisfied
with every attribute that his son brought into him. Every thought
that he had, every deed that he did, every word that he spoke.
was perfect, and that perfection has been imputed unto the Lord's
people from the foundation of the world. It's no wonder Paul
said, who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. It's His salvation, isn't it?
He wrought it, and He gives it. He gets all the glory for it.
God's people say, amen. That's all we can say. Truth,
Lord. Now back to Mark 15. This 9th hour is when he died.
When salvation was accomplished. In verse 37, it says, and Jesus
cried with a loud voice. We know what he cried, don't
we? We have other accounts of it. He cried it is finished. All the ordinances, all the ceremonies,
all the circumstances, everything necessary for the Lord's people
for their salvation. It is finished everything that
the Earthly priesthood was set up for. It's finished. It's accomplished
everything that God required. It's finished. All that the law required. All
that God demanded. All that was necessary in salvation.
He did that. He did it the 9th hour. That's
my favorite number now 9 just because of that reason. Nothing
without the 9th hour. We have no hope and I understand
it took from the 6th to the 9th hour. When it got to the ninth
hour, understand through the darkness. So remember Sunday,
we talked about how the smoke had to fill the holy place and
how the smoke had to hover over the mercy seat in order for the
priest to not die. Well, the Lord blacked out the
universe, didn't he? And he did business with his son, made his
soul an offering for sin. We don't understand what that
means, but we know that that's what it took in order for you
and I to be saved. And that's exactly what took place. The
Lord blacked out the world And he poured out his eternal wrath
and justice upon his son. And his son took all of the fire
of God's wrath into himself and extinguished it and put away
our sin in the process. Isn't that glorious? Therefore
the father satisfied with his son and the father satisfied
with you because we've been made the righteousness of God in him. All that was needed. to make
dead dog sinners, the righteousness of God in Christ. Christ did
it. The scripture talks about us being a worm and even when
the Lord made mention on the cross, my God, my God, why I
stopped forsaken me? That was written in Psalm 22
along back by David. It was a prophetic type of David
seeing as Christ was on the cross, because that was the exact words
that the Lord Jesus Christ used. And he goes on to say in Psalm
22 that I am a worm. And no man. I'm a worm. I'm not a man, but that word
worm is not a good kind of worm. And I've mentioned this to us
before. Sometimes I take my children fishing and so those worms actually
have a value to him to some degree. As a matter of fact, I was overcharged
the last time. Those worms are something men would desire to
have, right? He's talking about a maggot brethren.
He's not talking about something good in any way. A disgusting,
vile creature. We have no use for maggots, do
we? None whatsoever, what do they do? They just wallow around
on dead things, don't they, and consume it. That's what they
do. They're parasites, they're disgusting. But that's what we
are by nature in God's eyes, and that's what he had to become
in order to redeem us. That's the good news of the gospel.
That's why he gets all the glory in it. You've seen yourself as
that, haven't you? And you see that the Lord put
away your sin, and so you rejoice knowing that it's been accomplished,
that it's forever settled in heaven. He made us perfectly
righteous, sinless, no longer dead dog sinners, no longer maggots,
we're sheep. We're the sheep of His fold.
We're the sheep of His valley. We're the sheep of His flock.
He did it. He did it. One of the glorious facts of
our Lord being on the cross is His words in verse 34. At the
end, it says, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? We
know why He was forsaken, don't we? He had to be forsaken in
order for us to be redeemed. But brethren, understand what
He's saying here in the fellowship being severed with His Father.
They had always been perfect union between the Father and
the Son. In order for you and I to have
perfect union with the Father, His had to be severed. Understand, in order for us to
have fellowship with God, Christ's fellowship with the Father had
to be cut in two. He had to be cut off, the Scripture
says, from the land of the living. He had to be severed from His
Father. And He says, why hast thou forsaken
Me? He had to trod the winepress
of God's wrath alone, utterly. In the darkness, the dark abyss
of God's wrath in agony, he emptied everything. Why has the Lord
forsaken him in order for you and I to never ever ever ever
be forsaken ever? He said I will never leave you
and I will never forsake you. It's for you and I. That we would
not. Be forsaken of God. He will not
forsake his people. He loves his people. He loves
his people so much that he offered up himself unto the father and
save them. No wonder David said my cup runneth
over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life. Because it's finished. Second Timothy one nine tells
us who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. I
put this verse on our bulletin. It's the it's the Gospel in the
most simplistic form. It's according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us his own purpose and grace was
given to us. I know we understand what those
words mean, but sometimes we hear things over and over again.
How the Lord's bestowed grace and mercy upon us, and it almost
deludes it because we don't. We're unable to enter into it
every single time. If you hear something over and over again,
perhaps, but understand what grace means is you've been given
something that you did not deserve. No way, shape or form. Mercy
means that the Lord didn't give you what you did deserve. In
Christ Jesus, we've been given grace. We've been given his purpose. We've been called. We've been
saved by a holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. but is now, right now, there's
that word again. We come across that every time.
I gotta stop for a second and say now. When is it never gonna
be now? It's always gonna be now. There's now therefore no
condemnation to them which are in Christ, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death. He hath abolished death. Abolished. Death had to die. Understand that. That's what
abolished means. He abased it. Death died to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Do we see that? So death cannot
come to us anymore. Death has nothing to say to the
child of God. If we are in Christ Jesus, he's
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
He did this the ninth hour for his people. That's why David
said, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil for thou art with me. The Lord said, I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy
staff, they comfort me." That's why Paul said, O death, where
is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Death must say
of the child of God, I find no fault. I find no fault in this
individual. Why? Because there is no sin
in us anymore. Christ put it away. This is why our sin cannot keep
us from Christ. Isn't that glorious? Nothing
I can do merits my salvation, nor can keep me from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing can
separate us. Our sin cannot separate us because
what he accomplished in ice hour. Brethren, do you know what will
separate a man from Christ their own righteousness? If a man has
any righteousness in and of himself, it separates him from Christ.
But our sin can't. It's not our sin that separates
us from God, because He's put our sin away if we're in Christ
Jesus. And if we're in Christ Jesus, we're not gonna have our
righteousness, which is of the law, but His righteousness. It's
been imparted to us, hasn't it? It's been imputed. To be partakers of this glorious
salvation, we must come looking unto Christ, the author and finisher
of faith. the author and finisher of faith,
who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. We
must come trusting, trusting even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. There is no difference. God is
not a respecter of person. If he sees sin, justice must
be executed, so therefore, Therefore we must be found in the righteousness
of Christ. We must be found as perfect in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We must have been washed in his
blood in order to approach him. I wrote an article in our bulletin
about the Lord's name. His name is a strong tower. The
righteous run into it and is safe. I like the term is safe. That's continual. That's the
same thing as now. There's now therefore no condemnation there.
We are safe right now, right now. Why? Because we're in Christ
Jesus. If we're running into the tower,
running into the tower doesn't mean that we're working. Understand
if we're running into the tower, Jesus Christ running to his name,
it's because he's given us life to be alive. He's given us legs
to run to him. And he's given us faith to look
to him. Those that run to Christ run because they can run and
the Lord gets all the glory. Only the Lord's people will flee
to Christ. That's how He's made it, isn't it? Why? Because He
put away their sin. He put away their sin. He saved
us, and then He calls us. Then we see Jesus. We see our Savior as being successful,
and we come as mercy beggars, confessing Christ is all, confessing
His work is all, that what He did that ninth hour, what He
did for His people, we rest in that. We're not looking to add
to it. We're not looking to take away
from it. We are resting in his finished work. We come because
we have been made to believe we've been made to know a few
things, haven't we? We've been made to know that it was finished
the 9th hour. We've been made to believe it
is finished. Father, bless your word. Thank
you for putting away the sin of your people. Thank you for
never forsaking us. Thank you for not leaving us
utterly to ourself. Save us, we pray in Christ's
name.